Christmas Fruit Cake ~ Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas..the season of joy and happiness.Though we don’t celebrate Xmas,we are definitely a part of the festivities that come with it.Gifting of Cakes,sending Xmas greetings and special gifts for Chris-mom and Chris-child.Yup,the school I went to had this wonderful tradition of choosing a random friend from a chit out of a box which contained the names of all the students in the class.No one revealed who their Xmas friends were.Secret searches would begin as to what that person was interested in and what that person would like.The joy on someone’s face when you gift them something which they like is immense.

Fruit cakes are synonymous with Xmas and no gift is complete without the signature Plum cake.As I have mentioned earlier,I made my first Christmas Fruit cake last year following Mishmash’s recipe.I loved the taste but wondered if I would take that extra trouble this year too when all around bakeries and hotels sell it like hot cakes[pun intended:)].

But as they say,there is something special when you make it on your own.

I soaked the fruits and nuts about 3 weeks back and baked it yesterday so that by Xmas we’d get a matured-in-taste fruit cake.I got 2 cakes with the recipe and one is almost over.With a lovely golden caramel colour,just the right sweetness and the taste of fruits and nuts in each bite,this recipe is a keeper.I don’t think I’ll wait for Xmas to make this again.

Thank you so much Arundhati for this million-dollar recipe:):)

Christmas Fruit Cake

Recipe courtesy-Raaga of The Singing Chef

Ingredients

Flour – 2 cups

Baking Powder – ½ tsp

Dry Fruits – 1 cup (figs, apricots, dates, raisins, currants and sultanas), chopped

Candied Peel – ¼ cup

Tutti Fruity – ¼ cup

Mixed Nuts – ½ cup(Walnuts, Cashews, Almonds), chopped

Dark Rum – 1 cup (optional - you could use 2 tbsp Lime Juice to soak the dry fruits)

Light Brown Sugar – 1 ¼ cup

Eggs - 4

Oil – ¾ cup[I used 175 gms butter]

Cloves - 3

Cinnamon Powder – 1 tsp

For the Caramel

Sugar – ½ cup

Boiling Hot Water – ¾ cup

Method

Soak the dry fruits, candied peel and tutti fruiti along with the cinnamon powder and cloves in 2/3 cup rum for anywhere between 24 hours and 1 year. (I soaked them for 3 weeks.) Do remember to remove the cloves before using the fruits.

When you are ready to bake the cake, start by making the caramel. In a heavy bottomed pan, place the ½ cup of sugar and heat slowly. The sugar will begin to melt. Stir this mixture with a spoon slowly as the caramel forms. When all the sugar crystals have melted, slowly add the boiling water and stir to form a smooth mixture. Cool this completely.

Sift the flour along with the baking powder. In a mixing bowl, add the oil/butter, eggs and brown sugar and beat well. To this, add the flour mixture, the fruits and the nuts by turns. Whisk well and then add the cooled caramel.[I added the caramel along with the fruits and nuts]

Grease and line two 8 inch baking tins and divide the batter between the two. (I used a Christmas tree shaped tin and an 8 inch square tin.) Bake at 190 C/375 F for about 50 minutes.

When baked, make small slits in each cake and pour the remaining rum over them. While this cake is delicious straight out of the oven, try storing it for a week before consuming it. (To do this, wrap the cake in foil and then cover it with cling film.) This cake ages beautifully.


One of the best tasting Fruit cakes,there are a few things which attracted me towards this recipe.
--No fancy ingredients-eg:almond/rum essence,dry ginger,orange/lemon zest,spice powder etc--even without all this the cake tasted fantastic.
--The ease of making it--just like any cake recipe.Mix-beat-bake.
--No need to take special care while mixing in the fruits and nuts into the batter[no need to dust the fruits with flour].Even otherwise,the fruits gets distributed evenly and in each slice you'll get a bite of the fruits and nuts.
--Addition of eggs as a whole--somehow,seperating the eggs and beating the egg whites till peak stage and folding it in scares me off a recipe!!



I will be baking this cake again and again for sure.Try this out and you'll know why!!

Christmas Fruit Cake is off to Divya of Dilse,for her event - Show me your Cake!!

and to

Priyanka of Asankhana for Its time to Jingle again..